My Merman Cries Pearls

When I found out the villain was a merman who cried pearls, I fished the pregnancy test I'd thrown out of the trash.

Then I went to the roof.

So, uh, how many do you mermen have at once? And do they eat fish food or formula?

Declan, who had been in the middle of a dramatic suicide attempt, slipped and nearly plummeted from the eighteenth floor.

I shook my head and sighed. "You know what? Never mind. I'll just throw it in the ocean after it's born."

Later, after the baby was born, Declan didn't even dare to sleep, terrified I'd take our child and release it into the wild.

When the heroine, fighting with the hero, showed up at our door, he was in the middle of roaring at our eldest son over his swim meet results.

"You're a merman! How can you be afraid of water?!"

I knew Declan was the main villain of this world, and I was the wife his grandfather had found for him before he died. My mission was supposed to be to save him.

But I was slacking off.

Not only did I not save him, but I also doubled down on spending his money and taking over his bed.

The System, watching his "darkness value" remain stubbornly unchanged, had given up.

The last time it appeared, it had left me with a cold parting shot, "When the villain dies, I'll come get you."

I'd been waiting for over half a year.

Today was an auspicious day. The old almanac clearly stated, Favorable for Burials.

When Declan, his heart shattered by the heroine, Zoe, dragged himself to the rooftop, I was already decked out in all the jewels from his safe, eagerly awaiting the System's arrival.

But when the System finally materialized, its first words were, "Host, why are you wearing the villain's tears?"

"What?" I looked down in shock at the priceless pearl necklace around my neck.

"Declan is a merman. Those pearls are his tears," the System intoned mournfully.

A merman?

A merman who cries pearls?

My entire worldview crumbled. This wasn't a villain; this was a walking, talking gold mine!

This necklace had been hidden in a secret compartment in his study. I'd assumed it was a birthday gift for Zoe.

But her birthday party had come and gone, and the gift remained undelivered. So, one dark and stormy night, I'd helped myself

I remembered when Declan saw me wearing it, he'd looked at me with a complicated expression and asked, "You like this?"

I had rolled my eyes. "Duh. Who's going to argue with money?"

I'd had it appraised. It was worth one hundred and twenty million.

Now that I thought about it, his expression had clearly been saying, So, you like my tears?

"System! I think he can still be saved!"

I ripped off the necklace, dug the pregnancy test out of the trash, and sprinted for the roof.

At that moment, Declan had already climbed over the railing, half his body dangling eighteen stories up.

"Wait!" I held up the pregnancy test, panting. "So, uh, how many do you mermen have at once? And do they eat fish food or formula?"

His foot slipped, and he nearly fell. He clung to the railing, his body hanging in the open air. "What what did you say?"

"Don't want to take responsibility?" I was a little disappointed. How had telling him made him want to die faster? "Fine then. I'll just throw it back in the ocean when it's born"

It was just a one-time accident when he'd been drugged, anyway.

He probably didn't even remember.

Before I could finish, a dark figure vaulted back over the railing and pinned me against the wall. "You dare!" A tidal wave of fury churned in his eyes.

I secretly smiled, letting out a sigh of relief.

Excellent. The gold mine was secure.

After Declan came back from the roof, he wasn't himself.

He settled me in the bedroom, then immediately locked himself in the study.

I pressed my ear to the door and heard a frantic conversation.

"Calcium supplements during pregnancy seaweed wait, doctor, are you saying a human carrying a merman baby needs to soak in seawater every day?"

His voice suddenly rose. "But she's pregnant!"

I was trying so hard not to laugh my stomach hurt.

Who would have thought that the dark, ruthless villain would be on the phone, frantically consulting an obstetrician, his voice trembling?

When the study door suddenly opened, I nearly fell into his arms.

Declan quickly caught me by the waist, the heat of his palm searing through my clothes.

He looked down at me, his gaze falling to my flat stomach, his Adam's apple bobbing. "You"

"I'm hungry," I interrupted him, my tone righteous. "I want your homemade seafood congee."

Soon, the clattering of pots and pans came from the kitchen. The butler stood at the doorway, hesitating.

"Sir nearly burned down the kitchen the last time he cooked," he said.

"Oh," I replied. "It's fine. He's rich." If he burns it down, we'll just move.

The butler was speechless.

An hour later, Declan emerged with a soot-streaked face, carrying the finished product. It looked okay. Probably not poisonous.

Just as I was about to take a spoonful, he pressed a hand on mine. "Wait."

He carefully picked out all the tiny shell fragments, tested the temperature, and then handed the spoon back.

I deliberately frowned. "It's too bland."

He reached for the salt, but his hand froze mid-air. He turned, opened his tablet, and began earnestly searching for the recommended daily sodium intake for pregnant women.

I was speechless.

And so began my life of being pampered like an empress.

In the morning, there was fresh-squeezed orange juice made by the villain himself.

When I bathed, he treated me like a fragile piece of porcelain.

Even when I kicked him awake in the middle of the night with a leg cramp, he would gently massage it for me.

One morning, I woke up groggily to find him measuring my waist with a soft tape measure, his expression as serious as if he were disarming a bomb.

"It's only been a month. What can you even tell?" I teased him.

The tips of his ears turned red, but he insisted on recording the data in his phone's memo app, under the title, Merman Cub Observation Diary.

The best part was last week, when a business partner came to the office to see him.

When security called for permission, Declan was on one knee, tying my shoelaces.

"Don't bother me with things like this in the future," he said coldly into the phone.

"My wife is napping." After hanging up, he even tucked the blanket around me.

Right now, I was lounging on a rocking chair on the terrace, watching Declan build a swing set in the garden. The sunlight tinged the ends of his hair an amber gold. The scene was almost sweet.

Suddenly, a notification from the System popped up, Warning! Villain's darkness value has dropped to 90%.

Host its voice was laced with confusion.Are you sure this is the way to save him?

I smiled, my hand stroking the pearl necklace at my throat.

"At least he doesn't want to die anymore, right?"

Declan finished the swing set. I wiggled my toes. "Honey, my leg is cramping."

He wiped his hands clean, knelt on one knee, and began to massage my leg.

System, Nice!

"Honey, I want a pink pearl." A while ago, I had seen a pink pearl at an auction. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the hero, Caleb, had bought it to appease Zoe.

"Cry for me," I said, casually picking up a bowl of grapes and holding it under his chin.

Declan froze. He looked up, his deep-set, ocean-like eyes filled with disbelief.

"The color of the pearl depends on the merman's emotions."

"I don't care," I said, stroking my stomach. "If you don't cry, I'm releasing all your cubs into the wild."

His expression changed instantly.

Three minutes later, I was staring, dumbfounded, as the formidable villain, feared by all, sat there with red-rimmed eyes, dropping pearls one by one.

The pale pink pearls clattered into the bowl with a delightful sound.

The System chimed, Villain's darkness value has dropped to 85%.

I gleefully collected the pearls. This mission was too easy. At this rate, I was going to turn Declan into a simple-minded, pearl-crying merman.

But just as I thought victory was in my grasp, Zoe arrived.

She was wearing a simple white dress, her eyes red, standing at the gate of our villa like a rain-beaten white rose.

"Declan, please, you have to save my father" her voice was choked with sobs. "He's been taken. You're the only one who can find him"

I stood in the doorway, a cold smile on my face. "Go find Caleb."

Zoe bit her lip, the tears falling faster. "He doesn't have those kinds of connections"

I paused, then it hit me. Right. The hero was always the sunny, righteous CEO, while the villain was dark, shadowy, and ruthless.

So, when the world needed dirty work done, the first person the heroine thought of was always the one with blood on his handsDeclan.

I glanced back at him, standing on the landing of the stairs. He was just standing there, his expression unreadable, still holding the slipper I had just kicked off.

A sudden wave of anger washed over me. "You're not going!"

Zoe bit her lip, her tears threatening to fall. "If Avery says no, then I guess that's it." She turned, the hem of her dress creating a pitiful arc.

Just as she was about to leave, Declan spoke. "Wait."

I watched as he knelt down, gently put the slipper back on my foot, and even adjusted its position.

And then!

That bastard actually stood up and followed Zoe out the door!

"Declan!" I threw my other slipper at the back of his head. "If you go, don't come back!"

The slipper hit its mark with a satisfying thwack. He paused for a second, didn't turn around, just rubbed the spot where he'd been hit, and kept walking.

I was so mad I almost threw the other one.

At three in the morning, I checked my phone for the 28th time. The screen was still black.

Suddenly, the System beeped, Warning! Villain's darkness value has increased by 12%. Current value, 97%.

"What?!" I shot up, nearly throwing out my back.

"I've been sitting on his eggs like a mother hen, working my ass off to get rid of 15% of his darkness, and he goes out with the heroine for one night and gains 12 points back?"

The System added quietly, "To be precise, it was 4 hours and 38 minutes."

"What? Did Zoe use him as ransom for the kidnappers?"

I stroked my stomach, a cold smile on my face.

A car engine rumbled outside. I rushed to the window and saw Declan's Maybach pulling into the courtyard, its headlights cutting two hazy beams through the rain.

What made me even angrier was that when he got out, he was carrying something.

The box clearly had the logo of The Sea's Pearl on itthat ridiculously expensive seafood restaurant that Zoe loved.

"Very good," I gritted out to the System. "Get me the 'false miscarriage' prop. Now!"

The System's code nearly scrambled in panic, Ho-ho-host, calm down! Merman cubs are very resilient. That prop costs 5,000 points

"Do I look like I care about points?"

The reason I was slacking off in this world was because the points I'd earned from previous missions were more than enough for me to retire.

When Declan gently pushed open the bedroom door, he found me curled up on the bed, my face pale, clutching my stomach.

"Avery?" The food container in his hand clattered to the floor, salmon sashimi scattering everywhere.

I weakly looked up and saw a clear handprint on his left cheek.

Declan's hands trembled as he scooped me up.

The car sped through the streets, straight to the hospital.

I lay on the hospital bed, deliberately turning my back to him, listening to his ragged breathing as he spoke with the doctor.

"Signs of a threatened miscarriage. She needs absolute bed rest," the doctor said sternly. "And most importantly, she needs to remain calm."

Declan's voice was hoarse. "She and the baby"

"They're stable for now, but any more stress, and it's hard to say."

"Young Master a human body is not ideal for carrying merman offspring. The first three months are especially dangerous. If this continues, I'm afraid the child"

The sound of the hospital room door closing.

Then a dull thud, like knees hitting the floor hard.